Friday, 11 August 2006

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Ainsley Harriott's Monkfish On Potato Cakes

Ainsley's mother Peppy taught him to always use fresh ingredients and never say: 'It's too difficult!'

Serves 2
Preparation time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins

Ingredients

For the monkfish:
2 x 175g/6oz pieces of monkfish
fillet, trimmed
4-6 long thin slices smoked pancetta
(If you can't get pancetta, use smoked
streaky bacon)
300ml/11floz chicken stock
90ml/6tbsp dry white wine
45ml/3tbsp double cream
25g/1oz butter
Leaves from 1 large sprig
parsley, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the crispy Potatoes:
2 potatoes, 100-150g/3½-5oz
each, peeled
2 small shallots, peeled and
finely chopped
1 egg, beaten
1 slightly rounded tbsp
self-raising flour
Sunflower oil for shallow frying
[/ingredients]

Method

1 Wrap each piece of monkfish in 2-3 slices of pancetta, overlapping the edges slightly. Tie in a couple of places with some fine string and set aside.

2 Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6. Put the stock, wine and cream into a small pan and boil until reduced to 90ml/6tbsp.

3 Heat half the butter in an ovenproof frying pan, add the monkfish, seam side up, and fry for 1-1½ mins until golden brown. Turn over, transfer to the oven and roast for 10 mins.

4 Meanwhile, finely grate the potatoes by hand or in a food processor. Working with small handfuls at a time, squeeze out as much excess liquid from them as you can. Put into a bowl, fork to separate into strands and mix in the shallots, egg, flour, ½tsp/2.5ml of salt and some pepper.

5 Heat 5mm sunflower oil in a clean frying pan, then reduce the heat to medium. Divide the potato mixture in half and shape into 4 thin circles 7.5cm wide. Fry in the oil for 3 mins on
each side until golden brown and crisp on the outside and cooked through in the centre. Drain briefly on kitchen paper and keep warm.

6 Remove the monkfish from the oven, turn the oven off, but leave the potato cakes inside. Transfer the fish to a plate and remove the string. Add the reduced chicken stock to the frying pan and bring to the boil, rubbing the base of the pan with a wooden spoon. Whisk in the remaining butter, stir in the parsley and season with a little salt and pepper.

7 Put the potato cakes in the centre of warmed plates and place the monkfish
on top. Spoon around the sauce and serve with a green vegetable.

Taken from This Is My Favourite cookbook in aid of Children In Need, available from all major retailers and mail order at www.thisismyfavourite.co.uk (RRP £10).